Alison Fleming, a UTM psychology professor and Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Neurobiology and Genetics, has studied the question of why mothers want to mother for 30 years. Her research investigates how early childhood experiences can trigger changes in the brain, hormones, and ultimately gene activity\u2014changes which may have long-term effects not seen until decades later<\/strong>. \u201cThe quality of parenting a mother gives her offspring relates to the quality of mothering she herself received as a baby,\u201d Fleming says. \u201cIt\u2019s a cross-generational transmission of mothering style<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n Recently named as a lead investigator for the University of Toronto\u2019s newly established Institute for Human Development (IHD), Fleming joins a team of the university\u2019s top scholars and scientists devoted to untangling the connections between early childhood experiences and future health and well-being. The IHD will put research results to work by devising grass-roots interventions to optimize the prenatal and early childhood periods. From boosting a child\u2019s school readiness to reducing the risk of obesity, diabetes and mental illness, or paving the way for effective parenting years down the road, the Institute ultimately aims to set children on the right path for life.<\/p>\n Fleming\u2019s fascination for understanding maternal behaviour stems from her own experience being raised by a distant mother. \u201cMy mother was totally uninvolved with her children and I never understood why,\u201d Fleming says. \u201cWhen I was in college, I met a professor who studied mothering and I thought, \u2018God, I\u2019d really like to figure this out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Fleming\u2019s research reaches beyond nature versus nurture and into the realm of epigenetics, the ability of environmental factors to switch genes on or off without altering the underlying structure of DNA<\/strong>. \u201cThis concept is not new,\u201d Fleming says, \u201cbut it has gained a lot of interest in my field to provide a mechanism through which early experiences could have an effect.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Fleming, a rat who licks and grooms her pups or a woman who engages and interacts with her baby, will produce offspring that are more likely to grow up to be sensitive and attentive mothers themselves. Similarly, babies that have been deprived, abused or neglected will often have trouble later on to mother. In either case, epigenetics are at play. \u201cIt\u2019s an experiential effect,\u201d Fleming says. Rat pups born to a low-licking mother but raised by a high-licking mother have a gene \u2018turned on\u2019 to exhibit high-licking when they become mothers. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting that the experience can happen now, the gene alteration can happen now, but the expression of the gene can happen a lot later,\u201d Fleming says.<\/p>\n As a collaborator in the Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and Neurodevelopment (MAVAN) study currently underway in Ontario and Quebec, Fleming will get a closer look at how genes interact with the environment to affect parenting. MAVAN tracks 500 women and their children from the second trimester of pregnancy until the children are five years old, assessing health, mood, cognition, hormones, genetics and other parameters.<\/p>\n As always, Fleming will use the findings to search for ways to help parents and children overcome the effects of negative early experiences. \u201cAlthough the biology is similar, we\u2019re much smarter than rats,\u201d Fleming says. \u201cFor us, biology is not deterministic.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the University of Toronto Mississauga press release by Kimberley Wright: Although a doting mom cuddling and caressing her infant may not seem to have much in common with a… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,9],"tags":[133,42,45,234,73,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2674"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2675,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2674\/revisions\/2675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/MotherwithBaby.jpg\" "\\"mum")
Although a doting mom cuddling and caressing her infant may not seem to have much in common with a rat mother, she does. Not only are there striking similarities between the brain and hormonal systems of rats and humans that drive maternal behaviour, a U of T Mississauga professor suggests that early negative life experiences such as isolation, stress, trauma or inattentive parenting can affect whether a woman<\/strong>–or a rat–will become a good mother<\/strong>.<\/p>\n